Supreme Court Will Not Hear Bishop Harry Jackson’s DC Marriage Case

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up a case seeking to force the Washington, D.C., government to hold a referendum on the city’s gay marriage law.

The high court declined to hear an appeal filed on behalf of opponents of a March 2010 law that made the District of Columbia the sixth jurisdiction in the United States authorizing gay and lesbian couples to marry.

The justices did not comment on the action. Their refusal to take up the case leaves in place an appeals-court decision upholding an earlier rejection of the planned referendum. The court ruled that the city was justified in rejecting the referendum because it sought to authorize a form of discrimination barred by the city’s Human Rights Act.

“Today’s action by the Supreme Court makes abundantly clear that D.C.’s human rights protections are strong enough to withstand the hateful efforts of outside anti-LGBT groups to put people’s basic civil rights on the ballot,” said Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, in a written statement.

This is why wingnuts don’t like the judicial branch. It’s one thing to convince a bunch of yahoos to vote against gay people’s fundamental rights, but in courts of law, they have to actually be able to back up their arguments. In this case, the Supreme Court simply said “nah, we’re busy.” As I said, too bad, so sad!

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